Monday, November 05, 2007
Our Christmas Cactus
Rita is so proud of her Christmas cactus this year. It is new to our home. We bought it earlier this summer at a garage sale in the Mexican War District in Pittsburgh and she has been talking to it all year. The first buds are coming out and it looks like it will be all white. I tell you it is the healthiest plan we have had and if our luck holds out we won't "kill" it. We kept it out on our front porch this summer and it was covered and protected from direct sun, which is supposed to be best for this tropical plant. We moved it into our sun room now and the lighting is a bit more direct which is supposed to be good for the blooming time. Do you know it isn't really a cactus but tropical and needs a lot of water, especially from below? We kept it in a large dish and kept water in the dish and it sucked it right up. When we bought it the leaves were all hung down and sad looking but they perked right up with a little loving care. Hopefully it will bloom by Thanksgiving because we are going away for two weeks in December and would hate to miss the new full blooming period. Pray for our cactus that it stays healthy. Rita will share more about this cactus later when we have blooming pictures.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
OUR CAMPING TRIP THIS EARLY FALL
Well, it hardly seems like it should be Fall yet. The weather has been so dry this year and so warm yet. It was only a week ago that the temperatures were close to 90 degrees and the last week has been in the 70-80's. I took our motor home over to Keystone State Park near our home in Pittsburgh, for ten days. It is a lovely park along the river and has a beautiful lake and campground. Needless to say this time of the year the park was very empty, closing at the end of October to regular camping. The ten days I was there included warm weather, Rita coming over for four days in between and several of our church friends coming over for picnic times and walks. Fall is late this year and it will be a few more weeks before the full colors are at their peak but the changes are visible and certainly exciting. I had a great time camping as I just finished a 3 month assignment at one of the hospitals and I am in between any new assignments that are available right now. I took the time to wander through the countryside traveling up to Indiana, PA, where Jimmy Stewart was born and a museum exists there for him. There are some great back roads and Amish settlements around that area and just pure country living. I spent time in the small towns of Smicksburg, Latrobe, Kittanning, Derry Township, Ligonier, Greensburg(Where Seaton University is located) and old Civil War towns like Old Hannastown. I especially enjoyed driving through the Laurel Mountains, south of Pittsburgh, where the scenery was so awesome, with the large horse ranches and small creeks and homes like you would find up in the California Sierra's of Grass Valley and such. The apples, pumpkins and like are everywhere and they are so integrated into the land that you find yourself in the middle of their existence everywhere you go. Festivals are just about in every neighborhood and village and it is amazing how everyone celebrates Halloween and Fall here with decorations on their homes like Christmas. Whatever your feelings about Halloween you have to enjoy the excitement and color. We are going to a Fall celebration this weekend at our Pastor's home, an event he has every year and we look forward to the fellowship outside. I have included of course many pictures of what we have been doing and our friends joining us at our campground area. I will insert some more Fall pictures in a few weeks when we get back from another trip during the height of the color. GOD BLESS everyone.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
LABOR DAY TRIP TO MERCER COUNTY
During Labor Day Rita and I took two families with us to Mercer County to visit some of the sites where I grew up. Our first family was Michelle Smith and her daughter Taylor and son Colton and Sherrie Jackson and her daughter Lauren and son Preston. Michelle's husband is a Major in Iraq and they are members of our church family. Sherrie and her children are also members of our church fellowship. We all left around 9am in the morning on Saturday and went to the Victorian town of Volant, near New Wilmington and the kids had fun playing in the creek and visiting the shops. After that outing we traveled to Sharon and had lunch at a great Chinese buffet we had been to before(worked out great with the kids). We spent another hour at Daffin's candies where the kids could spend their candy money. Later we went to Clark,PA where we last lived before moving to California. In Clark we visited the bed and breakfast that was replicated after Tara from the movie "Gone With the Wind" I had played in that home when I lived there and it is always fun to see how they have transformed the house. From Tara we drove to Pymatuning Lake and the Spillway area(just redone this last year). It is mentioned in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" books because there are so many carp fish in the dam area and the ducks walk on their backs to get all the bread that folks throw to the fish. This was the highlight of the day for the kids and we finished off our time there and drove back to Pittsburgh getting home around 8pm or so. What a day, but we enjoyed it a lot and I know the families had fun. In fact we are talking about our next outing already for the Fall time. Below are some pictures from that trip.
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